


Queen's Evidence

by xuhei



Series: Triads AU [6]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: F/M, Mafia AU, brother!chanyeol, great for angst!!, hanahaki, this is kinda... selective to taste bc of the ending but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 14:01:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12255828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xuhei/pseuds/xuhei
Summary: “I realised why I kissed you before,” he answers. He swallows thickly and leans his head back. “You’re not like other people that I meet. You fought back against me. You offered a new perspective. I found myself wanting to spend more and more time with you but originally I thought it was because I needed something different but I realised it’s because I needed you.”





	Queen's Evidence

**Author's Note:**

> wow.. this was a ride to write so I hope it's the same to read. somehow it made me sad, I dont bias baekhyun but hey I do bias chanyeol so :)

“If you think I’ll let you do that, you are absolute crazy.”

A glass is placed down on the wooden table and the room stirs at the sound. A pin may drop and everyone would hear it. Though the group that lay in wait for their answer stay silent, the doctor gives a coaxing stare that would change anyone’s mind in this situation.

He knows what he’s doing. However, he is not crazy. He’s far from the sorts. Zhang Yixing may not be as experienced as the people around him but he’s a trained man who knows what can be achieved—thus, he knows what _can’t._

“Maybe I am crazy.”

“Maybe you _are_ crazy,” Kris repeats. The words come from your mouth originally but he’s not sure that he can trust you. He laughs— _cackles_ —as he brings his glass back to his lips. “You want me to grant you permission to _kill_ Byun Baekhyun. _You_.”

You hum at his words. “Of course Yixing will be helping me, but yes. I want to stab a knife into his back and watch him cry like a baby until he begs me for forgiveness.”

No one _really_ understands.

You can try to explain the desire you have to see Baekhyun writhing beneath you but it’s near impossible. Having him scream and cry was something you’ve wanted since the very first time you laid eyes on him. His eyes that are so beautiful. Such a gorgeous shade of brown.

To everyone else he’s _normal;_ Byun Baekhyun, born May 6th 1992 in Bucheon, partial leader of ‘ _Unnamed_ ’. He’d killed people and wasn’t a person you easily got on with unless you needed to get on with him. He had girls falling at his feet and he loved everything single minute of it.

Oh, wait. That was just your cover story. It wasn’t Baekhyun you needed to be grieving for.

It’s Park Chanyeol you’re after and you won’t rest until he’s six foot under with every accountable charge left on his bones. He’ll regret _everything_.

“And you think you can pull it off?” Kris asks.

Of course he cares for his own organisation and what your _plan_ means to them. What happened with Luhan has left the entirety of the Fourth Triad on their knees, so submissive to the Kim Brothers and Unnamed. All that Kris could control was those boys in DTA and Bangtan. Perhaps The Clan too, if you included the wannabes.

“I can,” you answer with a shrug. You eye one of the men who’s standing on the other side of the room and glare at him until he looks away from you. He’s never liked you that much. “Baekhyun has one fatal flaw. His _dick_.”

Yixing nods beside you. “Yifan, I believe it’s time that we accept that something needs to be done about those _people_.”

“Don’t forget that I had Lu Han telling me the exact same thing. _It can bring in new potential investors that will help us in the future, and if we get rid of all our competition now then we will be the biggest leaders in Eastern Asia._ Look where we are now.”

“Luhan’s plan was mixed with forgery and you know that,” you argue. “The girl offering to help wasn’t legitimate. This is me, Kris. I’m going to find him and put an end to him.”

He’s _so_ close to giving in and you know it. Kris gets that look on his face where he seems exhausted and wishes to communicate no more, and that means he’s done. You want to curse at him for not believing you but that would take you right back to square one.

“Please, Kris.”

He clears his throat and shakes his head, looking over to the right as he throws some more of his drink down his threat. “And this is nothing to do with your brother?”

“Why would it have anything to do with him?” You question.

“Because P—”

“Do _not_ say his name.”

“Because he’s the reason you’re here, and he’s the reason you’re who you are,” Kris says. He’s right, you know that and deep down even Yixing knows that. Luhan and Tao too. “I know what he’s done is unforgivable. I would want to kill him, too. You need to understand that when you go after family members things become completely different and your emotions take flight. I can’t watch him be the death of you.”

If only you cared.

“He won’t be, I promise you. I’m going for Baekhyun and I won’t rest until he’s dead. It will be enough to get back at my brother. Death would be too easy for him, anyway.”

♚♚♚♚

Your fingers are tapping against the wood of the table as you wait for him. This was a meeting, though made in the seventh level of hell, that everyone anticipated.

Yixing is sitting at another booth with a gun in his left pocket to kill anyone who tries to harm you. Luhan is outside in a van listening for Yixing’s signal that _something_ has gone wrong. All because you’d refused to use a wire so you could have a private conversation with your brother.

“ _Park Chanyeol_ ,” you mumble, eyeing him as he walks through the door with his sunglasses covering his whole face and body clad in that sickly _black_ colour.

He has no idea who he’s looking for. He was just told to meet a girl here on the second booth from the end on the left hand side. Whilst you start to believe he’s not smart enough to work out where the booth he’s looking for actually _is_ , he starts to walk towards you and your heart begins to _pound._

“Are you (y/n)?” He asks. His voice is monotonous and you’re in half minds to tell him no and crush his heart.

But you’re not feeling that evil today.

“That’s me,” you answer, shyly smiling up to him as you stand up. He’s far taller than you, as you expected him to be, and his bright red hair makes him stand out so clearly in the crowd that even Tao without glasses could see him. “I-It’s nice to see you, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol doesn’t answer you this time. He just stares at you, eventually bringing his hands to his sunglasses so he can push them back over his head and take the hair from his eyes. But then still, he just stares with bloodshot eyes and lips that are pale as a sickly man on his deathbed.

Until he wraps his arms around you and pulls you into his chest, mind you. His embrace is warm and—quite literally—brotherly. You’d have felt less fake if you weren’t thinking about stabbing a knife through his chest as he runs his hands over your spine in a soothing motion.

“I’m sorry,” he says to you. It’s the only thing he does say as he stands there and begins to attract the states from people in the cafe.

You know that he doesn’t mean it. He’s sorry because you found him after all these years and he doesn’t want to be called out on any of his actions. He’s sorry that he was dumb enough to make himself so well known that he _had_ to be the Park Chanyeol who deserted you as a child.

He was sixteen and you _weren’t_ ; your experience of the world was nowhere near as good as his and Park Chanyeol just decided to go. To watch you wither away until there was nothing left. He’s probably scowling inside because you’re still alive and you know he’s nothing like what people think he is.

The act he puts on where he’s evil and narcissistic? It’s not an act. It’s his true form. Anyone who has spent more than a week with him would know that he is even worse than Do Kyungsoo, Kim Junmyeon and Wu Yifan all stuck together.

“You don’t need to apologise. I’m just so glad I managed to find you again.”

Chanyeol pulls away from you and nods with a timid disposition, looking down to the ground immediately. You’re sure you hear him sniffle but don’t bring it up. He looks nervous. That makes you smile.

“Shall we sit?” Chanyeol asks.

It takes him a while to actually speak, something probably brought on by the fact he’s so concerned what you have in store for him. You could ruin him. He’s unlikely to have brought a gun or _anything_ because he remembers you as the sweet little girl who would follow him around like he was a _god_.

That must have contributed to why he’s such a narcissist now.

“How did you find me?” Chanyeol questions. He looks up to you from across the booth and offers the sweetest of smiles to try and lure you into his _innocence_ trap. “I’ve looked for you but no one could ever find you. Even my own—Even when I had private investigators they said that you were most likely to be… _dead_ , I guess.”

If you could roll your eyes, you would have. It’s a complete lie and even Yixing would be able to guess that. Because really, you’re not hard to find. You’ve not left the area and you don’t try to disguise yourself around others. Chanyeol didn’t care what happened to you; that was something you worked out _years_ ago.

So you shrug and send the same smile back to him. “I heard your name mentioned by this girl. I looked into it and… turns out I found the right Chanyeol.”

“What girl?”

“I don’t know. She was just talking about you and someone else. I had no idea who she was but she said you went down to a bar near to here. Actually, I think her name was Kim Jihye.”

Chanyeol raises a brow. “Kim Jihye?”

“Do you know her?”

“She’s my best friend’s wife,” Chanyeol tells you. “But that doesn’t matter. I’m here for you now. How have you been? Has everything been okay for you?”

“Of course, everything’s been good.” _Lie._

Chanyeol seems happy to hear your answer though. He nods and glances down to your hand check for any rings. He finds none, and you’re sure he’s relieved. “Are you still interested in writing?”

“I have other hobbies now, actually.” _Lie_.

How could you truthfully tell your own flesh and blood that you could write his own death over and _over_. That you’d make him suffer in so many ways because that’s what he did to you. That in _your_ eyes, Park Chanyeol deserved nothing but pain and misery. So that’s what you’d give him.

And your ploy for killing Byun Baekhyun? You’d only said it so Yixing would agree to help.

Chanyeol nods, but doesn’t say anything to reply. He doesn’t know you well enough anymore, he can’t try to act like the two of you are still _that_ close because he really hasn’t bothered. Though your problem lays in the fact you can’t let him go, so you have to keep talking like you _do_ care for him.

“What about you? What do you do?” You ask. There’s a slight smile on your lips that you use to coax him into your own caring act. “You always wanted to be a rapper. Did that happen?”

Chanyeol shakes his head. “I would never make it as a rapper. I work with some of my friends doing deals for companies and what not.”

“So you’re a city hot shot? A chaebol in the making?”

“You may say that,” Chanyeol jokes. He seems to be rather awkward on the topic of jobs. You best guess would be that it’s because he can’t openly admit he’s part of Unnamed to you. “Maybe you could meet my friends. I’ve told them lots about you.”

“Really?” You questions.

“Really. I did miss you, more than you know. I wanted them all to know about you because I wanted them to tell me I was a complete and utter asshole for leaving you alone.”

You hope that Baekhyun, Kyungsoo and Sehun give him shit for the way he treated his sibling everyday of his unimportant life. “You’re not that much of an asshole. You did what you needed to survive. I was expendable.”

“I really did think you’d hate me,” Chanyeol admits. He ignores your words and instead goes on his own tangent. “I know I left that night without telling you, but I did come back the next night and you were gone. I wanted to help you, too. I wanted us to survive together.”

“We’re both here, aren’t we?”

“But I shouldn’t have left without taking you with me.” Chanyeol’s eyes are glassy. He’s taking deeper than usual breaths as he looks over to you. He brings his hand to his heart and shakes his head, looking over to the side. He’s going to cry. _Dear god_ , please do _not_ let him cry. “I hated myself everyday. I thought you were dead.”

He _fucking_ cried _._

You have to find some compassion—albeit fake—to offer to Chanyeol so he doesn’t think you’re a complete bitch. So you reach across the table and rest your hand on his forearm gently. “It’s okay. I’m fine. You don’t have to hate yourself.”

“This guy said to me he could me off the streets and I accepted it. I told him that I’d do whatever he said and he took me in. He got me an apartment and he paid for everything so long as I worked with his son.”

He’s talking about Kyungsoo’s father, you’re sure. But you’re not meant to know that. “It sounds like he roped you in to do gay porn.”

“Gay porn may have been better.” Chanyeol’s laugh hasn’t changed one bit. It’s almost nostalgic. “I can't… I know that you’re my sister, but I can’t tell you what I do yet. I can take you to meet everyone I know and go from there. I want you to be in my life, to make up for the past years. I’ll be the brother I once was to you.”

He may come to regret his words eventually, but you won’t say anything. Step one was to make sure you’d have easy access to Park Chanyeol and now you’ve got it. A second attempt to take down Unnamed may be successful if you had something to do with it.

Luhan might have failed to destroy them; Kim Kai following the same fate many times before. You’re Chanyeol’s sister. You’re not going to do anything that bad.

And if you did, no one would find out about it.

♚♚♚♚

“They may be a little intimidating at first,” Chanyeol tells you, pulling you through the glass doors and into the hotel’s dining hall.

He’s told you that this is the best place to meet his friends, and you’re sure that he’s allowing them to meet you and decide whether you’re allowed to be told about what Unnamed really are. It didn’t matter anyway. You knew exactly what went on behind closed doors.

Even as you approach the filled tables, you’re able to spot the table. Anyone would be drawn straight to their table, it sat in the middle of the room with an obnoxious centrepiece that craved attention. The three boys that inhabited the table weren’t so bad, either.

The first you notice is Do Kyungsoo.

He possesses a face that’s so stern you believe he may be frozen in time, but he blinks every time he changes his attention to something new. He’s always observing, just like Kris, and Kim Suho. He’s a businessman; an _actual_ chaebol. He’s not like one of the kids that want to run a gang, he _knows_ what he’s doing.

Then there’s Oh Sehun. He’s got such a youthful looking face, and hair darker than a raven’s feathers. He’s truly stunning. Now you understand why Luhan has always referred to him as the seducer, but not the heartbreaker.

Oh no, that position was saved for Baekhyun. You feel your heart shatter into ten million pieces when you see him, and you _understand._ The girls that fall at his feet have no choice but to do exactly that. His eyes lure you in and don’t let you go.

Especially not when you do meet his eyes and he smiles at you, like a panther so close to catching its prey.

“Hey.” Chanyeol’s greeting is a little dry as he approaches the table. You pay no attention because you’re still stuck with Baekhyun who’s not looking away either. “Let me introduce you to (y/n), my sister.”

“ _Half_ sister.”

Do Kyungsoo is just as cold as Wu Yifan. You’d have liked him if you were closer to Chanyeol and didn’t already have your loyalties set with the Fourth Triad. His words remind you of something similar to what you’ve said when relating to the topic of Park Chanyeol.

“Yes, half sister,” you confirm.

You now your head at the three of them and Kyungsoo hums, bring his hands to the two boys to make them stand up beside him. “Nice to meet you. My name is Do Kyungsoo. This is Oh Sehun, and Byun Baekhyun. Chanyeol has told us a lot about you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” you reply with a smile. Sehun seems to be the most gleeful of them all but Baekhyun is still just watching. “Chanyeol tells me that you four are all very close.”

Sehun nods at your words, taking his seat once again. He leads the rest of the group this time. “Ever since we were kids. Well, Chanyeol hasn’t known us that long but the rest of us have all been good friends for a long time. What about you? Have any good friends we should know about?”

“I—uh…” You pause to see Kyungsoo whack Sehun in the chest, mouthing something along the lines of _shut up_ to his younger. As far as you know, their youngest is just as feisty as Yixing is. “Not really. I don’t make many friends these days, I guess.”

Sehun frowns. It seems Kyungsoo’s words haven’t really affected him. “Having no friends must suck.”

“You don’t have to answer him,” Chanyeol tells you, seeing your position as uncomfortable.

Reality is that you think Sehun is the best of the four of them. He may be the stuck up, snobby rich kid everyone spoke of, but he didn’t seem to try and make you feel like less of a person around them. _Kudos_.

“It’s okay,” you say to Chanyeol, smiling at him like you once always used to. “Honestly? I like having no friends. It means that I get to spend a lot of time thinking about things without worrying someone isn’t happy that I’m not talking to them or paying them enough attention.”

Kyungsoo hums, taking a swig from his glass that’s filled with a brownish liquid. Whiskey? He seemed to be that kind of guy. “I like that philosophy.”

“But being alone for so long would surely ruin you.”

You turn to Baekhyun, as do the other three. They seem annoyed by his words but you’re only curious. “Loneliness if subjective. If you’ve been alone for a long time then you’ll find it becomes normal.”

“Excuse him,” Kyungsoo mumbles, still narrowing his eyes at the dark haired boy. He turns back to you and clears his threat. “Now that Baekhyun is married, he seems to think everything should be done together.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Married?”

Chanyeol manages to catch your eyes and shakes his head, as if to stop you from asking any questions. Instead, he turns the conversation to something to do with Sehun’s _deals_ and the four of them are trying to explain how Sehun is so good as his job.

Though you’re focused on one thing. Byun Baekhyun.

Baekhyun is the one that’s married to Kim Jihye. Jihye who’d told you that she’d run away from Baekhyun the second she got a chance to because he was evil. He was the Byun Baekhyun that killed Yixing’s brother and that hadn’t changed.

A cold, dastardly man who saw people as expendable. Just like Park Chanyeol.

Yet you’re intrigued by how he looks so fondly at you from across the table, and how he can seem to be so innocent in the white of the light around him. You can see why Yixing hates him so much just by the way he acts like the world is owned by him. He may believe that though.

“What about you?” Baekhyun asks. His question is directed at you and you’re left to stare back to him with no idea to why he’s asking you _something._

“Sorry?”

“What do you think about the gang problems in Seoul?” Baekhyun repeats. All three are looking to you with eyes like fire.

“It doesn’t concern me,” you answer. “People can do what they like. I personally think it has no effect on others that aren’t involved. I wouldn’t know what to say because I’ve never been involved in gang related activity.”

Baekhyun hums. He doesn’t say anything else, instead waiting for Chanyeol to continue as though they’ve _planned_ this conversation for a while. “You don’t care?”

“Not particularly.”

You wonder for a moment if Kyungsoo and co can see straight through you, but the tension disappears in Chanyeol’s body and you realise something. They were planning this, just for you. Chanyeol’s testing the waters on what he can tell you.

♚♚♚♚

Chanyeol decided to bring you over to where he lives, in an apartment block with the others in surrounding apartments. It’s not _really_ an apartment though, it’s a penthouse and you’re sure it would cost more than you could ever afford but it belongs to Do Kyungsoo’s father.

That’s the reason Chanyeol lives here. It’s also the apartment he’s lived in since the day he left you, claiming he’d come back for you and never did. You’re not mad. You just want to see him choking in his own blood.

“Baekhyun is here today,” Chanyeol tells you. He places the key in his lock and turns it, but never opens the door. He faces you instead and narrows his eyes. “He’s had an argument with his wife and isn’t in the best of moods. If he says something out of line just ignore him.”

You nod, but furrow your brows to make yourself seem interested. Of course you are—this is about _Baekhyun._ Byun Baekhyun that you’ve been lying awake thinking about since you first met him. “They argued? Is it serious?”

“Baekhyun thinks she’s cheating on him,” Chanyeol tells you. He still doesn’t open the door and instead ponders for a few seconds. “How about you talk to him? You might be able to show him that he’s worrying over nothing? If you don’t mind, of course. I’m just… not very good with this kind of stuff.”

Chanyeol never was, when you really think about it. He was awkward around girls and failed to ever get a girlfriend because they said he was either too hyper or too dismal. Never in between. He always complained about it but never tried to find a solution to it.

The more you think about it, the more you realise he’s the same boy you grew up with and he’s still the brother who left you for dead in an abandoned house because he was offered a shot at getting his life back on track. Like _shit_ do you believe his half assed story about looking for you and trying to help you.

But you smile and nod sincerely at Chanyeol. “Sure, I can help.”

“He said he thought you were really nice, too,” Chanyeol adds. He’s most likely telling you this so you don’t have an attitude with Baekhyun, one he knew deep down you had inside of you.

“He did?”

Chanyeol hums. He leads you through the front door and you’re immediately greeted with lavish furniture and Baekhyun sitting on the couch with his phone in his hands. You can’t ever bring yourself to look around the room. You’re caught in Baekhyun’s gaze and looking away would mean that you’d escaped.

“You can stay here for as long as you like,” Chanyeol tells you. He closes the door, something that _does_ drag your attention away from Baekhyun, and smiles again. This one is far more sympathetic. “I mean, if you would like to stay here. It might not feel like your home or anything, but you can treat it that way. God knows Baekhyun does the same thing.”

You notice how Baekhyun’s got jackets piled on Chanyeol’s cloak stand – the boy wears smaller jackets than your brother and they have such a different style. Chanyeol goes for jumpers. Baekhyun goes for blazers.

And you must keep in your mind for as long as possible that today, of all days, Byun Baekhyun seems to be dressed by the gods and sent straight to earth to conquer _you_.

“I do the same thing because you’re like my brother,” Baekhyun says.

You’re sure that he doesn’t mean it in an offensive way towards you, but you can’t help but take it that way. He’s basically your replacement. “I won’t stay here for too long. I don’t want to be a burden to you all.”

“Nonsense!” Chanyeol placed his hands on your shoulders and smiles widely as if to make you far more comfortable with where you stand. “I need to make things up to you. So please, do anything you like here. You’re not a burden at all.”

Your immediate feeling is to ask him _why_. Why’d you leave me, Chanyeol? Why did you think I was so irrelevant that you could just let me go like that? Why did you leave me to _die_? He didn’t come back. That was bullshit. He wouldn’t return for you.

“ _Chanyeol-ssi_.” One of his maids appears from around the corner and she bows her head as he looks towards her. You notice how she doesn’t turn her back to him and treats him like the king around here. That’s what he’s used to. “There is someone on the phone for you in the other the room.”

Chanyeol nods. He let’s go of your shoulders and gives another of his trademark smiles. “I’ll be back in a minute. Keep her company, Baekhyun.”

“Will do.”

You can already tell it’s going to be a very long minute. Baekhyun’s back to that usual stare and you’re beginning to think that he does it to scare people; to warn them off. It means you’re no less enticed. If you _could_ have Byun Baekhyun, you would already have him.

He’s got an earring on today, one you notice as you slip into the seat next to where he’s sat and look over him. It glistens in the light and you’re attracted to it, but not in the same way that you are to the rest of him. His hands, the fingers that are lined with rings that have encrusted diamond all over, they look ready to play the finest of pianos.

To play _anything._

“Chanyeol never told me why the two of you haven’t seen each other in a while,” Baekhyun says.

You raise an eyebrow as you shift your knees to face him. “Sorry?”

“You really need to listen to me when I’m talking. That’s twice now.” Though Baekhyun is joking, you fear he may actually take offense from your lack of attention. If only he knew you were distracted by _him_. “Chanyeol never talks about his past. He skips over it like the whole thing never happened. Why did the two of you separate for so long?”

Baekhyun’s slightly parted lips have you in a trance. You’re compelled to answer. “He left me because he was offered a job.”

“A job?”

“This job,” you tell Baekhyun.

He hums, placing his hands in his lap. “Right. _This job_. Well, I’m happy he found you again. He seems to be much brighter in the eyes of everyone else.”

“Why are you in this job, Baekhyun?” You ask.

His name is so _good_ coming from your lips. You could say it over and over, all day long until nothing else was left to say.

“My father,” Baekhyun tells you, “he’s worked with Kyungsoo’s father for years. The two of them are good friends. They’ve always had each other’s backs. Sehun, too.”

“I would never have guessed that Oh Sehun was good at this line of work.”

Baekhyun only laughs. He looks away from you and over to a photo of the four of them on the side. You only catch it for a moment because Baekhyun steals your attention right back. “You’ll be surprised at what Sehun can do. He’s very… effective.”

“ _Effective_ ,” you repeat, tracing over Baekhyun’s lips again.

 _Oh_ do you want to throw your head back and _scream_ in frustration about how these feelings about Byun Baekhyun are driving you right to the end of your tether. He’s going to be the death of you at this rate. You’re not even sure why he’s so special to you but you can’t spend a second with your eyes shut without seeing his face.

It makes your chest hurt just from the thought of him. It’s like you can’t breathe.

“Do you believe this is really a business?” Baekhyun asks.

You have to pause for a moment. You can answer him honestly or you can make it seem as though you’re a little dense and can’t work anything out. “I believe that someone here is running some kind of business, but I don’t believe it’s one where deals are made like Chanyeol told me.”

“He only told you that because he fears your opinion on him will change. He doesn’t want you to hate him any more than you already do.”

“But I don’t hate him.”

Baekhyun shakes his head. “You shouldn’t lie to yourself. Not about something like that.”

No answer can be brought to him because he’s right. A part of you doesn’t want to lie to Baekhyun like you are to everyone else because he understands you a little more than everyone else does. But your mission here is with the Fourth Triad and even Byun Baekhyun can’t break the deal that you’ve made.  

“I understand what position you’re in, (y/n),” Baekhyun says softly. He looks to you with anguish in his eyes that makes you wonder about his past, too. It sounds so heavenly when he says your name, doesn’t it? You could hear that for days, too. “Anyone who lost their brother and believed he left them for dead is going to hate him. It’s brave of you to stand next to him and act like everything is okay.”

Byun Baekhyun may just be the only person who understands you.

“You think so?” you ask him in return, shoulders dropping as you look to him for the comfort you needed.

Byun Baekhyun is the first person in the entirety of your life who’s said to you that it’s okay to have these emotions towards Chanyeol. That it’s _normal_. He’s not justifying your wishes and desires but you’re connecting with him because he can understand, for whatever reason, that Park Chanyeol ruined you.

So when he nods, offering you that unforgiving smile that you’ll never be able to leave behind, you’re _sold_. “You deserve more than what people are giving you.

♚♚♚♚

To your surprise, Baekhyun had invited you out to lunch.

Though you expected to see either Chanyeol or Jihye too, when you walk through the doors into the restaurant that he’d sent you the address for, it’s just him sitting.

Byun Baekhyun is staring down at the menu in his hands, with waitresses looking over to him from the other side of the room with lustful eyes. He pays no attention to them though. He just waits, and he’s waiting for you and you _alone._

“Good afternoon,” you say softly as you take your seat opposite to him. He looks up, nodding his head as a greeting before closing his menu. “Nice to see you, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun’s emotionless stare brings a shiver to you spine. “Nice to see you too. I didn’t think you would come.”

“Why wouldn’t I come?”

“Because I’m just a friend of your brother,” Baekhyun states. He watches you for a moment to see if you react but you’re as still as him. “But you’re here now. I enjoy speaking with you. A lot, actually.”

Cue that suffocating feeling in your chest again. Baekhyun is becoming your life source and you can’t do anything about it. “Oh. Thank you.”

“That’s why I wanted to meet you actually. So that the two of us could talk some more.”

In your head you’ve got the concern that Baekhyun is married. Even if his wife is connected with Park Jimin and probably pays no care for Baekhyun, he’s still married to her and they’re connected. The thought of falling in love with a married man makes you sick to the core.  

You don’t even realise it’s impacting you until there’s a pain in your chest and you feel the need to cough surging through your throat. It sends you doubling over in pain, so your face is towards the ground and Baekhyun can’t even see you anymore because you’re hidden behind the table.

You can’t help but be thankful he doesn’t see. In your hand that you’ve been coughing into is a pair of delicate white rose petals, splattered with dashes of red.

Your mind goes blank.

“Are you okay?” Baekhyun rushes to ask, standing quickly so he can move to your side.

Before he can see what’s in your hand you’ve crushed the petals and thrown them to the ground. Your mind must be playing tricks on you. There’s no way in hell that you have just coughed up petals. It’s _impossible._

But so is convincing yourself that every time you look at Baekhyun, he’s not the apple of your eye.

“Could you get us some water?” Baekhyun asks a waitress nearby, crouching down to your level and resting one gentle hand on your back. He rubs it across your dress clad skin in a soothing motion, one that doesn’t make you any calmer at all. “Are you okay, (y/n)?”

You nod, barely convincing yourself of the same answer as you look up to Baekhyun. “I’m fine. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s just a cough,” you tell Baekhyun. He may or may not believe you but for now that’s not an issue. You’ll have to find Yixing and get him to tell you if you are clinically insane. “Because of the cold weather. I promise you, I’m fine.”

The eyes that meet your own don’t seem to be completely trusting in your words but doesn’t push it any further. He keeps his hand on your back and pulls his blazer sleeves up on his arms. “I’ll order you some tea. It will soothe your throat a little.”

“Thank you, Baekhyun.”

You’re _more_ than _just_ thankful.

Though Baekhyun’s raven hair and black rimmed eyes carry a direful disposition, the lack of red eyes and fanged teeth convinces you enough that he’s not a vampire of the sorts. _Vampires._ The petals made you think you were insane, but now you’re talking about vampires as if Baekhyun would take you to the back and feast on your blood that was dripping from your neck. You’d let him. You’re already enthralled, anyway.

“You should tell Chanyeol.” Baekhyun’s sitting in his chair again, high and mighty looking like before. You have to look for a moment so Baekhyun continues to speak. “He’ll find a good doctor for you and they’ll sort it out.”

As nice as it would to just say _my good friend is a doctor, they’ll sort me out_ , you can’t go through the explanation of who your friends are. Especially since you had told them you didn’t have any friends, and since Yixing is one of Baekhyun’s worst enemies.

So you change topic. “Why do all of our conversations revert back to Chanyeol?”

“Because he’s the reason we know each other,” Baekhyun alerts you. He shrugs. “If you’d like, I won’t say anything more about Chanyeol. Just about the two of us.”

 _The two of us_. It runs through your mind until you realise Baekhyun must think you’re insane. But that choking feeling is coming straight back to you. “You think we can be friends?”

“ _Friends,_ ” Baekhyun repeats. He hums nonchalantly and picks up his knife, tapping the metal tip on the table. “We can be friends. I’d like us to be friends. We can greatly benefit each other.”

You raise an eyebrow. “In what way?”

“In _any_ way that you’d like.”

You _have_ to swallow hard, but it doesn’t help with the fact you can’t breathe for a moment because more dastardly petals are in your throat and you’re having to cough them up into your hand again. Baekhyun just watches this time, concern all over his face but he makes no effort to move to you like he did before.

You steady yourself, throwing more of the petals to the ground so they’re in a pile on the floor by your feet. When you look back up to Baekhyun, his brows are furrowed and his index finger is running over his bottom lip.

“Maybe I should ask Chanyeol about that doctor.”

Baekhyun nods, picking up the knife again and dragging it across the white sheet. “You should. I wouldn’t like to see anything bad happen to you. Especially not now we’ve agreed to be friends.”

♚♚♚♚

Yixing’s used to your rage by now.

He’s seen you smash glasses and punch walls because of the shit of a brother you have, but he _knows_ this is nothing to do with Park Chanyeol. This is you. You’re mad at yourself.

So mad that you’re on a bed in his office, crying your eyes out. You don’t cry. You’ve never cried in front of him. You just _do not_ cry.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers. It’s not meant to hold any value but he really does mean it. “I wish I could tell you something else. I wish I could make this all better but I know that I can’t. Please just know that I will cure it for you and make things like they used to be.”

His words can’t stop your tears. Even as you look up to him, there’s a stria of wet lines down each cheek that you’re not trying to prevent. “You can cure this?”

Truth is, you’re not even sure what you’ve got. You’d burst into the room this morning and begged Yixing to help you. He knew as soon as you showed him what was wrong, but trying to explain why he knew would be too much. You’re not in the right state to be taking any kind of confession to him.

You’re in love with someone. Yixing has to accept that.

“Shall I tell you what’s wrong first?” He asks. His voice is so calm; he’s done this many times before. He never thought you’d be the one sitting on his table with eyes so fearful.

“I’m not sure if I want to know,” you answer. He believes you have a feeling about what’s wrong deep down. You’re smart. You can work it out. “But you said it was a disease. So, I should know. You should tell me.”

Yixing agrees with you by nodding his head. “It’s called Hanahaki Disease.”

“Hana…what?”

“ _Hanahaki_ ,” Yixing repeats. It’s his accent that confuses you, that’s what he tells himself, but he can’t bring himself to say the word to you and pronounce every syllable with care. “Patients with this disease will start to cough up petals. It’s strange. No one knows where it came from, but they believe it comes from one sided love. Your symptoms aren’t severe. You’ll be okay.”

You swallow hard. Your hand is grasping at your chest and Yixing winces at the sight of you so fragile. “I’ll be _okay_?”

“No case has ever been fatal. You can do some research if you don’t believe me, but it’s nothing that can send you to your death bed. I promise you. If it starts to become such a problem that you’re coughing the petals up more than twice in five minutes, then a European firm has found a surgical method of removing it.”

“But?”

“But you lose the feelings for whomever you love, too.”

Your face seems to drop. Yixing wishes to assure you over and over that it will be fine; that you’ll be okay like he said before. But you’re stubborn. A statement like that won’t help you. “And that’s the only way to control this disease?”

Yixing hates lying. He rarely does it. He knows from personal experience that lying can end someone in the worst positions and ruin their life.

He’s told patients lies before. Like the elderly lady who suffered a heart attack on the fifth floor. She wouldn’t make it out of the hospital and he knew that, but telling her there was a chance kept a smile on her face that still didn’t leave. Even though she was closer to dying with every breath.

And the man who was in the car accident who would never walk again. His wife begged Yixing to do something and somehow, Yixing told her that he’d get her husband to walk again. So far nothing, but she didn’t give up hope and neither did he. Yixing had given it up years ago.

So an attempt at lying to you could have been harder. He thanks the stars that guide him for making this a medical issue, one he knows you’ll trust him in no matter what. He can lie here and pray you never do your own research. You wouldn’t anyway, you’re planning to kill Byun Baekhyun.

 _Byun Baekhyun_. Why does Yixing believe that one has something to do with this?

“It’s the only way,” he answers. “If there was another way, I would tell you. For now, it won’t be so bad. It will just annoy you, and you’ll have to deal with it. Do you possibly know who could have… _caused_ this?”

Your blank face confirms his suspicions. You can’t look him directly in the eye when you answer. “I’m not sure. It could be anyone.”

“Don’t lie to me. That’s all I ask of you.”

“I don’t want you to hate me for it,” you tell him immediately.

Yixing knows the name that’s going to fall from your lips and he can’t bare to hear it. Not now. It is too soon. It’s far too clear in his mind exactly what his enemy had done to his family for him to try and act like hearing his name coming from _your_ lips was okay. He’d rather be stuck with Hanahaki for the rest of his life.

Maybe he will be.

“Keep it to yourself,” Yixing says. He passes you a bottle of water from his side and smiles, adjusting his glasses. “It’s personal to you, so I don’t need to know. Just be careful. Drink lots of water and if you need to cough or be sick, do it. Don’t try to act like you’re still fine.”

You take the water, thanking him with a bow. Yixing tries to keep his eyes as neutral as possible, just until you leave. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you know so much about Hanahaki?”

Yixing freezes. He’s learnt how to lie effectively and he’s done it to you once today. He can do it again. “A patient came in last month with the same thing. I said I would research it for him. Lucky coincidence, I suppose.”

He doesn’t believe in coincidences. You don’t believe in luck.

♚♚♚♚

Chanyeol is sitting between you and Baekhyun, the four of you watching over the theatrical performance of a musical from Europe. Cats, or something like that. It’s something that Chanyeol says he’s been looking forward to for a while.

That desire to see this musical is what lead him to invite Baekhyun, his best friend that is a _supposed_ talented singer, and his sister, who he has to make a lot of things up to. But he’s noticed that the two of you are close, and that’s why he’s sitting between you.

Perhaps he fears he’ll lose you to Baekhyun?

“Would you like anything?” Chanyeol asks, turning to you during the interval that had just started. “I’m going to get Baekhyun and I a drink.”

You shake your head and let him go before you asking him for a similar _type_ of drink, one you’ve been dying to have since this whole thing started. You couldn’t allow yourself to, though. The possibility of getting drunk and revealing everything was far too great for you to risk it.

But boy, did you need to just forget everything. The fact that you were actually sick, all the times you’ve spent trying to be nice to Chanyeol and more importantly, Byun Baekhyun.

You needed to get him off of your mind before he took over you and completely destroyed all your plans. Well, Chanyeol wasn’t that bad when you really thought about it. He _was_ trying. The bitterness held up inside it just too much for you to get over and forgive him so easily.

Though Baekhyun and your feelings for him are starting to get too much. As if on cue you’re coughing again, the very thought of him sending the petals from your lungs to remind you what a cock up this all is.

You’ve fallen in love with Byun Baekhyun.

“Did you ask Chanyeol about the doctor?” Baekhyun asks. It’s not the first time he’s spoken to you tonight but it is the first time in this hall he’s said something to you. A part of you fears Chanyeol has told him to stop trying to make you like him.

But you shake your head and shrug. “I’ve been busy. It’s fine. My cough is—it’s getting better.”

He’d have believed you if you didn’t cough up another pair of those petals that are always surrounding you now. Chanyeol had asked why they were always near you. You just told him was a coincidence, like Yixing’s knowledge of Hanahaki – not that Chanyeol knew of it.

Chanyeol isn’t smart enough to work out that some rare disease born from one sided love is what you’re experiencing. He hasn’t worked out that you’re a part of the Fourth Triad yet, so likelihood is he never will.

“I have a free house on Wednesday next week. I’d like it if you came over,” Baekhyun says to you. “Of course it’s up to you. But the of us haven’t spent any time alone. I think that I would like if we did.”

You and Baekhyun _alone_. What a thought to creep through your mind and destroy any innocence left lingering around you thoughts of him. You wonder if he has the same idea as you do. “Alone?”

“Just you and I.”

“And what will we be doing?”

Baekhyun clears his threat but does not change his emotion at all. “Do remember when I told you that we could benefit each other?”

“They didn’t have any Sangrino,” Chanyeol tells Baekhyun, slipping back into his seat between the two of you feigning ignorance to fact you two were talking. He hands Baekhyun a bottle and his gold card. “This is meant to be good too.”

Baekhyun furrows his brows as he looks at the bottle. “Maybe I should have gone for liquor. Would you like this?”

His question is directed at you but you’re stunned by how quickly he can change from Baekhyun to _Byun Baekhyun_. He holds the bottle out to you, and even if you didn’t want to take it, the submissive side of you grasps your fingers around the neck and pulls it to your chest.

“I was just telling (y/n) about your work,” Baekhyun states. He looks to Chanyeol with eyes dark as his hair and keeps his lips pursed. “I think it’s time you tell her the truth.”

Whatever they are speaking of, Chanyeol’s not very happy. He shakes his head and refuses to look at you. “What truth?”

“ _Chanyeol_.”

Baekhyun’s voice is so commanding. You’ll be damned to not hear that again. All you could ask is that he says your name instead and has you buried beneath him as you slowly give into him. He’s got the control over people you wanted to have.

He’s what _you_ want. To be, and to have.

“I don’t just work for a company,” Chanyeol tells you. He takes a deep breath and turns back to Baekhyun who looks disinterested now. “Have you heard of the group, _Unnamed_?”

He’s finally trusting you enough to tell you these things. It’s good really. But deep down in your heart you feel some sympathy for him; being played by his own sister.

“Are you about to tell me you’re a part of a gang, Park Chanyeol?”

Baekhyun interjects this time. He holds his hand up to stop the two of you. “Gang is subjective. We’re in control of many people and operate as more of a _mafia_ type formulation. Don’t underrate us.”

“And you’re the leader?” You ask Baekhyun.

“No, Kyungsoo is.”

At least they’re not lying to you, that you know of now.

Chanyeol’s eyes look heavy and you can tell this was never his idea to start with. He must have been forced into this by Baekhyun, that was your only explanation for why he was so hesitant at first. You can see why, though. This isn’t a small detail he left out. He’s a leader of one of the most feared triads in Asia.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Chanyeol repeats. “You don’t mind? You haven’t got anything to say?”

You shake your head. “Chanyeol, everyone always told you that you should have joined some kind of organisation because of your mind and body type. Remember the man who coached you boxing? He said you were fit to scare anyone.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“And, I didn’t exactly believe some guy scouted you on the streets to be part of a multinational company,” you insist. This is why you believed he was stupid yet again. Baekhyun was the only one who thought this through. “But I don’t care. Like I said before, you can do what you like.”

A part of you may have cared more than you made out, but you’re still transfixed by Baekhyun that it doesn’t quite enter your mind that Chanyeol’s still unsure of your position on his _job_. Baekhyun takes you to a completely different reality altogether.

There comes the feelings again. Except this time Chanyeol is around to see it, and he cares just as much as Baekhyun.

“Hey,” he rubs your back as more of the petals fall into your hands, chest sore from these things getting caught in different places. “Do you need some water?”

You shake your head, trying to act as though your hand isn’t full of the blotched petals. They’re becoming redder every time this happens. “I’m fine.”

“She’s not fine, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun interrupts, his word ending up holding more value than your own. “This has been going on for a while.”

“I promise you, I’m fine, Chanyeol,” you insist.

Chanyeol’s torn between the two of you. You’re sure he’d have trusted Baekhyun’s word before this but _surely_ he has to listen to you when you say you’re fine. Yixing is helping you for the meantime, if another doctor intervenes then it will just become messy.

He carries on rubbing your back in circles, turning away from Baekhyun. “Make sure you tell me if it gets any worse, okay?”

You nod, glancing over to Baekhyun. His eyes flash the deepest of reds.  

♚♚♚♚

“I need to tell you something.”

Baekhyun looks over to you with furrowed brows, hands stopping their movements. He places the bottle of wine back onto the side and swallows his words that were ready for you. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s about Jihye.”

Baekhyun had invited you over when you were watching that musical, and true to your word you showed up at eleven am with a half assed smile and a dress that would reel him in a little closer than you wanted.

Your original aim, to come here and show him how you could benefit him, had been let loose. You couldn’t possibly try to show Baekhyun how much he was making you suffer, so instead you decide to help him. To share with him the things you hear as a woman around these areas. People tell you what they’re too scared to tell their partners and superiors.

He’d sat you down when you arrived and placed his hand on your thigh, delicate fingers curling around your dress as he suffocated you with words and distracted your mind from his true intentions. His soft skin was burning you but you didn’t care. You didn’t even notice. He’d made sure you were focused on him. His eyes. His lips. _Him_.

To you the way he caresses your thigh was just a way of showing you he was listening. That your words meant something. As you told him about your childhood and how you would aspire to write like the famous authors of your parent’s generation, he was telling you something else. _I want you. I want you in so many ways. Let’s benefit each other. I’ll show you how I benefit you first._

 _Benefit._ It was such a stupid word. He couldn’t benefit you in anyway whatsoever but you’re _so_ distracted that you’d never notice. He’s a backstabber. He’s a liar. He’s a cheat. He’s everything you described him as to Wu Yifan before you showed up here with the intent of killing your backstabbing, lying, cheat of a brother.

One day you’d realise that Chanyeol was none of those things. But Baekhyun was.

And he’d tried to kiss you.

The fact he leant over you and kept your hands held above your head, that all skipped over your mind. You focused on his lips and as he pressed them to your own, your mind stopped. You felt him everywhere. Itching all over you skin and ruining you from the outside in. What’s worse is that you’d have happily carried on, but those loathly petals saved you from dispair.

You had to pull away from him so you wouldn’t show your secret and expose yourself. Instead of what you wanted, you were forced to run to his bathroom and all you could see in the bowl was a completely stained red rose. It’s not blood that’s covering it, but it should be.

“Yes, what about her?” Baekhyun continues. He leaves the wine uncapped and turns his back to it, resting against the counter and leaving you in the open.

“I heard her speaking with someone last night,” you tell him, “she said something about meeting with someone called Namjoon. Kim Namjoon. They’re going to leave with Park Jimin.”

Baekhyun, unfortunately, does not react. He stares you down. “This happened last night?”

“Last night, when Chanyeol took me downstairs to meet with Kyungsoo and Sehun again,” you tell him. You can’t believe you’re being so truthful but this wasn’t meant to be personal. You’re helping him. “She was on the phone in the washroom. I heard her. He’s escaped from prison and they’re going to leave together.”

Baekhyun’s still not reacting and it sends a shiver down your spine. How can he be so normal? He seems as though he doesn’t even care about what’s happening and instead just wants to focus on other things. Does he even care about Jihye? He’d kissed you just earlier. He acted like she didn’t exist then.

It would’ve been uncalled for if you just accused him of not loving her. Maybe in his own wicked way he did, but you were in no place to be judging. You’d allowed it to happen because he was intoxicatingly beautiful and you weren’t sober anymore. All secrets were ready to spill. You’d have given up Yixing, Luhan and Tao if he asked you to.

Just like Jihye did with Park Jimin before.

“How convenient.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re telling me my wife is going to leave me.” Baekhyun takes a step towards you and narrows his eyes as they trail down your body, stopping at your hands which are clasped together. “After I’ve just kissed you. Does it not seem a little strange that you’d bring this up now and not when you’d walked in the door?”

Your heart stops. Your chest is getting tighter at his words. “You think I’m lying?”

“Did I say that?”

No, he didn’t. He didn’t say you were lying, you’d inferred that from what he said to you. But what else could he mean by saying something like that?

“Exactly.” He takes another step towards you and trails his fingers over the curve of your cheek, stopping by your lips. You have a sickening urge to cough but swallow down hard. There’s no way you’ll get your hands to your mouth in time to stop him seeing. “What is it? Are you in love with me?”

 _Yes. I’m falling in love with you and it’s making me sick_.

“Why would I love _you_?”

Baekhyun chuckles grimly. “Why wouldn’t you?”

He’s _so_ right that you want to grab that knife he liked to play with and stab it straight through his neck. Like his father did with his victims. What a fitting death for the youngest Byun who loved to play his games with everyone. Especially people he could make fall in love with him so easily.

He’s made you sick to just push you away. It’s like… he _wanted_ this to happen to you so he could see the true power he harnesses.

“She’s going to leave you, Byun Baekhyun,” you repeat, following your words from earlier. You push his hand from your face and shake your head. “Don’t believe me, I don’t care. Do whatever you want. But know that the reason she’s left is because of who you are.”

Not that your words even scratch at the surface of his feelings. He has none. Byun Baekhyun has taken nothing from what you’ve said and he’s just got that emotionless and blank stare like always. He doesn’t care. He never has.

And somehow you end up running for the one person that does care. Who always has, who’s not been lying about things.

“Park Chanyeol,” you call through his door. Baekhyun could probably hear you since he didn’t live far. He knew you’d come here anyway. He’s smart. “Chanyeol, this is important.”

Even though he opens the door in what seems like seconds, your heart is thudding and you can feel a burning in your throats like before. Yixing said the only way to remove the disease was surgically. Does that mean you can’t remove the disease by stopping your feelings for Baekhyun? Why didn’t you ask that? Why was he ruining your life?

You can’t even say anything to Chanyeol, pushing past him just far enough to make it to his kitchen sink in case you are actually _sick_. But you’re not. It’s that rose, again. Covered in red and accompanied by a pair this time. Staring you right back in the face to show you how badly you’ve been deceived.

 _Comeuppance_.

“Woah.”

You turn to your left and Chanyeol is standing there. He’s witnessed you coughing up flowers now. There’s no way to escape it. He _knows_.

“It’s under control, Chanyeol,” you tell him.

It’s so half-assed but you can’t be bothered to try anymore. Not today.

“They're… flowers?” His statement—coming more as an ignorant question—takes you by surprise. “I—Why—Flowers?”

He really has no idea. This isn’t common. You should know that. Yixing only knew because he was a doctor. “It’s a long story.”

“And I’m your brother, so I have time to listen.”

You could have protested it further but Chanyeol leaves the two flowers in his sink and he drags you into his living room, sitting you down beside him and giving you _that_ stare. The one you know means he wants to know everything that’s wrong.

“I promise you that I’ve got it under control,” you tell Chanyeol again. Maybe this time he’ll believe you. “I’m seeing a doctor and they’re sorting it out for me.”

Chanyeol doesn’t look convinced. He shakes his head and looks back over to the kitchen you’ve walked from. “That doesn’t explain anything.

“I have this disease and it makes… this sounds stupid, Chanyeol. It’s so stupid.”

“It’s not stupid. Tell me what’s wrong.”

You debate it for a moment. It wouldn’t be hard for you to tell him and get it over with so you never had to think about this again. So it seemed more realistic and like you weren’t crazy for believing Yixing about this stupid Hanahaki thing.

But he might find out you’re in love with Baekhyun that way, and it can have detrimental effects on everything.

“I have a disease,” you tell him. You spare the name to hope he won’t try to research it himself later. “Flowers are growing in my lungs and… there’s an operation to remove it. I thought the doctor was crazy but I looked into it and it’s becoming more common. I’m fine, honestly. I’m fine.”

Nothing is said by him. It’s because he doesn’t know what to say and really, you don’t blame him. There’s nothing to be said when someone tells you something like this. He can’t make things better, and hand on your shoulder is all he can do to offer comfort. Strangely, you appreciate it.

“But there’s something more important.”

Chanyeol raises an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“Kim Jihye is planning to leave with Park Jimin,” you inform him. You wait for him to flip out and tell you that there’s nothing going on but he doesn’t. He waits for you to finish. “I heard her talking about it last night. With Kim Namjoon. You said they were both part of Bangtan. I think they may try to revolt against Unnamed.”

You’d not have cared if he didn’t believe you. Why should he? He’s known _you_ for less than Baekhyun in this instance and your words should mean nothing to you. He and Baekhyun should have the exact same opinion here and they should see eye to eye on this. You don’t expect him to see anything but lies in your words.

But he believes you.

♚♚♚♚

You can’t even look Baekhyun in the eyes as he talks to you. He’s so carefree. He doesn’t realise that other people have feelings and you want him in the coffin.

With or without Chanyeol.

It’s not that he’s ruined your life. Chanyeol did that a long time ago and you’d never forgive him for that, but with Baekhyun it was far more than that. He had made you _sick_. You couldn’t go five minutes without a bastard petal falling from your lips. One you’d have to disguise in case he found out.

But he hates you. He blames you for a failed marriage. So you’ll blame him for the same thing.

“We’re going to sort this out,” Kyungsoo says.

His dictatory expression takes through your mind and brings you back to the reality you’re facing. A prison escapee that would have Baekhyun’s name on his hit list. A prison escapee that was hurt, just like you.

“Park Jimin will find her,” Sehun states, his voice rather absent from the conversation as he brings his bottle to his lips. He pauses, just skimming the plastic before moving it away again. “He has a reason to kill her. She sold him out. He’s Park Jimin. He doesn’t have a good bone in his body.”

You’re only here because Chanyeol wanted you here. Chanyeol _trusts_ you. The cluelessness that followed his reasons for trusting you troubled you everyday but he couldn’t be forgiven for what he’s done. You’d never trust him and he’d have to live with that.

Live he may, now that Baekhyun has acted so carelessly.

“She won’t die.”

Baekhyun seems so certain of it. All you can do is scoff at his words from your chair that’s just a little further out of the circle than the others. Of course they all look to you.

Especially Baekhyun with the eyes like fire. “Is there something you wish to say?”

 _Oh_. Just his eyes are sending shivers through your body and you can’t help but glance down to his lips for a mere second. His swollen and red lips that beg to be kissed.

Not by you. The thought makes your lungs tighten and soon you’re choking on those rebarbative petals that come some viciously, waiting to kill you from the inside out.

Chanyeol’s the only one who’s concerned. He hands you a tissue and offers you an empathetic glance that means _nothing_.

“I think you’re stupid for believing that Park Jimin would spare anyone,” you tell him. You’re clutching onto the petals so tightly that they’re crushing beneath your palms and leaving a red pigment on your fingertips. “Your wife, who’s in love with Park Jimin, won’t have anything to do with you in a week’s time. If that.”

Baekhyun’s own fingers are gripping the leather of his chair and he looks like he might take a shard of glass and stab it into you. He’d have to catch you, first. “Say that again.”

“She doesn’t love you.” _Not like I would._

“Shut up.”

“She hasn’t cared about you ever since you two first met,” you tell him. Maybe it’s because you want him to suffer like you have. Though you can’t see his heart breaking, not like you wanted to. “You and I both know that she only got with you because she wanted to escape her old life. She doesn’t care. She’s never cared.”

You should be more shaken when Baekhyun throws his glass to the ground, the shards scattering across the floor and alcohol leaking in all directions. You just stare at it. It’s broken like your heart. Like your lungs and your health and your mind.

You still love him.

“Don’t fucking say that,” Baekhyun growls, only stopped by Chanyeol who holds him back from you. “You don’t know her and you don’t know me. Don’t act like you do. Shut the fuck up.”

Chanyeol pushes him back. He comes to your aid again and you wish to tell him not to. He’s trying so hard to make up for things. “Sit down, Baekhyun.”

“You agree with her?”

He’s losing his mind. It makes your lips curl into a smirk and you _know_ you’ve won this time. He’s hurting. You’re hurting. The pair of you may never hurt together but, at least it was an eye for an eye here.

“I think you’ve been drinking,” Chanyeol says. He sits his friend back into his chair and is mindful of the glass as he calls over a maid to clear up the shattered pieces. “Baekhyun, you need to accept that Jihye and Jimin have history. Anything could happen that we don’t know about.”

Chanyeol keeps talking, though you pay it no mind because you’re watching Baekhyun. How his chest heaves but he still stares at you with something unrecognisable in his eyes. Lust? No, he wouldn’t list towards you. This is something more. You’re not sure if he wants to kill you or kiss you. The latter seems too vague.

How could he love someone like you?

“I want you to watch Jihye, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo says. His hard stare makes you snap into the reality of this situation once more. “If she leaves, you find out where she’s going.”

The reality of this all was, if Jihye goes then Baekhyun is yours. A love sick and broken Byun Baekhyun that you can torture with fire and ice until he knew what it was like to have flowers suffocating him from the inside out.

So her leaving to be with Jimin wasn’t exactly a bad thing. You could kill him. For Yixing, for the rest of the Fourth Triad and more importantly, for yourself.

Chanyeol can be dealt with later.

♚♚♚♚

Yixing stands across from you, white coat covered with red marks from the countless petals you’ve shown to him. He’s not seen a case like this. No one has, of that you can be sure.

“Do you want the surgery?” He asks.

He knows that’s for the best and even if he can’t convince you that you’ll be perfectly okay afterwards, he won’t let you get out of Hanahaki any other way. He doesn’t want to see you suffer but so far, that’s all he’s getting. This plan was stupid. This idea was flawed. You’d never get Baekhyun.

You’re hurting yourself.

“No,” you answer, your words firm and lips pursed. “I won’t get the surgery. Not until he’s dead.”

“That could be a long wait. You’d have to suffer this whole time.”

You shrug. Yixing hates the way your eyes are so lifeless and filled with tears. Always. He hates it so much. “If I love him then I’ll want to kill him. That’s how it works. I have more reason.”

Now Yixing already knows who Baekhyun is. He knows what the son of a bitch has done to people, and how he’s ruined lives without care. His mother cried for days after finding out her youngest son died.

Zhang Luoyang was only fifteen. He had his whole life ahead of him before Byun Baekhyun decided that his time had come.

Yixing had found his brother in his own hospital, struggling to breath through lungs starved of oxygen and a heart that was broken in so many places. He’s never broken down before. He’s never not been able to work. But that moment? Yixing’s life was pulled from him and he realised the seriousness of his position.

He’s Zhang Yixing, born October 7th 1991 in Changsha, partial leader of ‘ _Fourth Triad_ ’. He’s saved so many people and there wasn’t a single person he wouldn’t try to extend the life of. Last year his brother had been killed by Byun Baekhyun. Last year he saved Kim Minseok’s life without realising.

He’d never done anything wrong in his life apart from be born to his father.

So he knows what it’s like to have a reason to want to kill someone. He has a burning desire to keep Byun Baekhyun locked up in a room with every chemical gas slowly suffocating him the same way it took his brother.

And now, Yixing thinks, what Baekhyun is doing to him too. He needs surgery, but you need it more.

“But you’ll do it straight after?” Yixing questions.

“Of course I will. I don’t want to think about him again. I want him to rot in hell for this, for what he’s done to everyone.”

Truthfully, Yixing has no idea what Baekhyun has done to you. He’s noticed how you accept calls from Chanyeol and talk so nicely to him, but he dares not ask about Baekhyun because the name leaving his lips is _wrong_.

“Chanyeol would make me, anyway,” you tell him. You sigh heavily, holding your hand to your mouth as another petal leaves your lips. “He got mad at me. Told me I’m not taking care of myself and that he’d find the best doctor in Korea to make sure I was okay. I know he only cares, but I already have the best doctor in Asia. He’d only ever get second best.”

Yixing subsides his fast beating heart by turning around to his glass cabinet above his sink. The one that’s full of your oddly coloured red roses. “Don’t convince yourself of that fact. Many others are better than me.”

“Don’t be so humble, Yixing.”

He laughs, clearing his throat afterwards. “I’m realistic. There are many better than me for many reasons. I just pay attention to people. I make sure everyone is okay. I won’t let anything happen to my patients.”

“We all know that,” you reply. Yixing remains still, shuffling through his bottles of pills as you walk over to him and stand by his side. “Thank you, Yixing.”

He turns to you, brows furrowed and lips pursed. His chest is tight, he imagines this is how you feel around Baekhyun. He’s learnt to control it now. He can keep it a secret.

“Thank you for what?”

You roll your eyes. “For everything. For being there for me this whole time and making sure I’m okay. I don’t think I’d still be here without you.”

“I did what anyone else would do,” Yixing tells you. He offers a smile as he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “You know that.”

“And _you_ know that Kris still hates me, and is waiting for me to fuck up so he can kick me out like a homeless cat.”

He can’t argue because you’re not wrong.

Instead, he sends you on your way with a bottle of pills that he’s been using to make side effects easier. He tells you that his patient from before says they make they suffocating sensation easier. Yixing’s not sure if that’s the case for anyone apart from him.

Either way, he knows he has to focus on his work. There’s a man coming in later who had his arm cut with a knife and Yixing has promised he’ll save his arm and repair it fully. Whether he will, he’s not sure. He has about twenty minutes to research it on his laptop and see if it was possible or the man’s limb to work fully again.

For now, he has an email from someone named Park regarding treatment of disease that causes patients to grow flowers in their lungs, and a pristine white Gardenia laced in the red roses that fill his sink.

♚♚♚♚

“Do you not believe me?”

Baekhyun shakes his head. His eyes are glassy and somehow, deep down, you feel sorry for him. Doesn’t he realise you’re hurting too? This all has an impact on your life but all he ever sees is himself. “You are the only one capable of doing this! You said you hated them, why wouldn’t you kill them if you had the chance!”

“Because he’s my brother!” You shout back, ignoring Baekhyun’s tears that threaten to spill. “You think that bitch is dead? She’s been fucking Park Jimin for the past year right under your nose! She’s not dead, she’s with him, and _they_ killed Chanyeol. Not me.”

You’ve already told him all of this. He knows it all but he doesn’t believe you and he that won’t change today.

He’s hurt. You know he’s hurting because you would be in the exact same position if the person you were married to upped and left before you could say another word. The truth here is that Baekhyun didn’t care about her. The truth is he cared about his pride and a wife who leaves him for another leader of a triad is _damaging_.

A bruised ego can ruin anyone.

“You’re telling me you didn’t want Chanyeol dead?”

“I’m telling you I didn’t do anything to either of them!”

Baekhyun scoffs. “You told me she wanted to leave because you wanted me to yourself. You know that. To think I considered leaving her for you! Is that your reaction to everything? To kill someone that’s a problem? You wouldn’t last a second in the real world.”

You’re kidding yourself, really. You don’t even think it’s sunk in yet that Chanyeol is _dead_. You’ve not seen his body, you only know that Baekhyun is telling you he’s dead and you’re believing it like some submissive mistress that gives into anything he says.

Chanyeol’s _dead_.

“You don’t know anything about me,” you tell Baekhyun. You want to push at his chest and scream at him but that’s what he wants. “I wouldn’t kill Chanyeol. I wouldn’t do that to him.”

Not now, anyway.

“You hate him. You _hate_ everything he’s done. That’s incentive enough to kill him. You’ve got reason to kill both of them.”

“I do _not_.”

Baekhyun’s stare is hard; he’s close to cracking you. “I don’t believe you.”

“Don’t believe me then!” Your protests are coming in vain since your chest is starting to ache again and you know another flower is coming. All because of Baekhyun. Oh, how you wished _he_ was dead instead of Chanyeol. “Go on. Tell Kyungsoo that it was me. That I killed my own brother and your wife because I was so desperate to suck your dick and say I love you. Tell him that! See what he thinks.”

It dawns to you that Chanyeol is the only one who’s believed you this whole time. He was there for you when you needed it and he didn’t even beg to differ when you mentioned the situation with Kim Jihye.

Baekhyun is a monster.

“You did all of this because you love me.”

“So fucking what if I love you!” You’re close to smashing everything around you. It’s only because you’re in the street outside the apartment block that you resist temptation. “Does that matter, Byun Baekhyun! Does it matter if I love you? I wouldn’t kill them both for that reason! I’m not _that_ selfish.”

Baekhyun cackles. He spares you none of his wrath. “Stop lying to yourself.”

“About what? Me being selfish? If I was selfish then I would be in Chanyeol’s position, not him! I’d have ditched my brother to get off the streets. But I never did that. I _love_ him. He’s my brother and I would give the world for him. But you’re still here accusing me of murdering him in cold blood because his best friend won’t love me back? Who do you think I am!”

Baekhyun’s face drops. He looks emotionless and you can’t read him like you always have done. He just stares at you as the clouds overhead start to brew and a clap of thunder sounds in the sky. Let the rain come and wash away his sins. That’s all you can ask for him.

“Love you back?” He spits. “How would I ever love _you_ back!”

Your turn to scoff now. There’s people staring and you have to ignore them so you can analyse Baekhyun. He’s just in shock. He’s saying anything to make himself feel better. “I already told you. You loving me has _nothing_ to do with this. Chanyeol is dead. Jihye is presumed dead. Instead of trying to persecute me, accept that it was Bangtan. Like I said it was before!”

“Jihye _is_ dead. You killed her.”

“I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“Then where is she!”

“Why should I know!” you shout back. The rain has started to fall and it somehow disguises your tears. Baekhyun wouldn’t have noticed anyway. “Byun Baekhyun, I have done _nothing_. Go and use all your men to find Park Jimin or so help me I will make you _wish_ I killed her so you had peace of mind.”

He won’t do it though. Baekhyun will blame you for the rest of eternity and act like there isn’t an issue with Bangtan so he doesn’t get butt hurt over it. You won’t just make him wish you killed her, but _him_ too. His death before all of this may have been nice, but now you’ll spare him nothing.

And you see, it’s not like he can do anything. To tie you to anything here he’ll need Queen’s evidence.

“You’ll regret this.”

“No. _You_ will regret it,” you tell him, “don’t come crawling back to me. Don’t try to make me accept that this was a mistake. I know your true feelings, Byun Baekhyun. So help me if I ever see you alive again.”

The rain is getting heavier with every step you take to walk away from him. You don’t question the footsteps you hear behind you, you don’t even turn to see if he’s following. You need to clear your head from Byun Baekhyun.

But the only question in your head is where are the scarlet petals hiding?

♚♚♚♚

Yixing notices something as you’re sitting on his office bed, legs crossed and arms folded over your chest, so introverted in demeanour.

You’ve not coughed the whole time you’ve been here. That’s a new record.

“Bangtan are after him,” you tell Yixing. You rub your eyes with the back of your hands and sigh. “Chanyeol’s dead and Bangtan know everything about Unnamed. That bitch sold them out.”

Yixing feels strangely excited. He’s been waiting for the fall of such an evil group of people since he discovered they existed. “Do you think that they’ll do our job for us?”

He doesn’t condone death. Yixing has worked against it for so long. All of the money his father left him was put back into this hospital so he could treat though who couldn’t afford it and he could save though who needed it most. But if Baekhyun showed up at his doors, he’d have to close them. It would be the first time he ever closed the door to anyone.

Maybe that means that the blood is also on his hands, but he doesn’t care.

“If they can find Baekhyun, then why wouldn’t they?” You question.

“Because it would be more feasible for them to take out D.O than Baekhyun,” Yixing tells you. He closes his laptop and turns fully to you. “Yifan called me in last night and told me that he’s giving you a week to finish the job, or he’ll find someone else.”

“And that’s Kris’ way of telling me he’ll have my head on a plate if I can’t kill Baekhyun?”

Yixing nods. “You know Yifan, he doesn’t like to lose. With Lu Han’s stunt, he doesn’t want to fall and become weaker once more. He’s worried that Zitao will go after Kai himself.”

“Once we’ve destroyed Unnamed, we can go after the Kim Brothers.”

Yixing knows that it’s a promise you would love to keep, but can’t.  

Tao’s own problems with Kim Kai meant that anything in the scale of destruction was near enough impossible. Whereas emotions were a good incentive for you and Yixing alike, they weren’t for Tao. He’d go crazy if he got a chance to kill Kai. He’d never be able to make the shot because it was too much for him, no matter how much experience as a sniper he has.

So, Yixing decides to focus on the job at hand now. He can’t help it, he _loves_ to help people out so he thinks of Tao and you before himself. He knew Baekhyun wasn’t who you wanted to kill originally but without his help Yifan would have said no to your plans. He knew Tao wanted to see Kai dead so Yixing had promised never to _accidentally_ help _that_ Kim brother out if he came into the hospital.

“You’ll need the surgery as soon as possible,” Yixing tells you. “The longer you leave unmatched feelings the deadlier they become.”

“But I thought that you said—”

“—that it wasn’t deadly. I know. It’s never been deadly before, but think about the effect that Hanahaki has had on your life. You look _sick_.”

Yixing hasn’t told you that it was Chanyeol who emailed him about the disease, regardless of his their positions in the triads. He fears if he tells you, you’ll hate him for it.

“I know,” you answer.

Yixing walks over to you and sits beside you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. “Listen to me. You need to do something about… you need finish this job before it’s too late. Show Kris we get things done. I know it’s hard because of what happened to Chanyeol, but Unnamed are weak now. It’s a good time to strike.”

You rather unfortunately nod. Yixing wanted you to scream at him for his words of vain. “I am sorry, for the things I’ve said about him. I thought he hated me. I thought he would have just left me for dead but he didn’t. Baekhyun’s the monster I’ve been fighting this whole time.”

“If you really think that, Chanyeol will know you think that.” Yixing tries to rub your shoulder to comfort you but it’s no use. You’ll blame yourself for his death regardless. “You can’t change the past. You need to focus on yourself.”

“I’ll get the surgery as soon as he’s dead.”

♚♚♚♚

No one knows where you live. That’s why the banging on the door at one in the morning scares you silly.

Your tired mind tells you it must be Tao or Luhan coming to give you information from Kris, more about having to kill Baekhyun by the end of this week. An end that comes in three days. You can think of many ways to _actually_ kill Baekhyun, but outing them into action was a different story.

As you open your door, you meet _his_ eyes and realise this isn’t a drill. Byun Baekhyun is at your door, tattered clothes covered in blood and hair matted to his forehead. He says one thing and it _scares_ you.

“ _Help_.”

His cry comes from lips that look bitten and completely raw. He meets your gaze and reaches out for your hand but you’re frozen. You can’t pull him in and act like everything that has happened, hasn’t. His fingers grasp yours without reason. He wants the help he came here for.

“Please,” he begs. He ignores how you don’t move and pushes through your door, slamming it shut behind him. “You were right. I’m sorry. You were right.”

“I was right about what?”

“They’re coming.”

Baekhyun’s rushed words are cut off by the sound of glass smashing outside your building. He moves past you and to your open window, cursing when he looks down to the street below.

“Who is coming, Baekhyun?” You question him.

“Park Jimin,” he says. He almost sounds delirious but you manage call him down by placing a hand on his shoulder and stopping him from pacing. “I-I mean Kim Namjoon. Whoever it is. I don’t know. They’re following me. They’re trying to kill me.”

If Wu Yifan himself hadn’t had trained you to keep a straight face you’d have been smirking like no one else could.

But Baekhyun grasps you by the shoulders with eyes so sorrowful that you have to listen to him. He knows you’re angry because he wanted that. He also knows you’re in love with him and he’ll use that to his advantage.

 _Use_. It was such a fitting word when it came to Byun Baekhyun.

“I know that you won’t believe me,” Baekhyun starts, barely looking away from your eyes, “but I’m sorry. I should have listened to you. I’m so sorry. I know you wouldn’t kill Chanyeol. I’m sorry. I’m _sorry._ ”

And no, you don’t believe him.

Because he didn’t believe you when you were so brutally honest that it hurt you. He’s mad you sick. He’s mad you want to kill him over and over and skill asks for your help in a situation like this? He’s the sick one. He’s crazy.

“Is that them outside?” You ask.

Baekhyun nods a few times before taking your hand and tugging at it. He’s trying to pull you towards your bedroom so he can find somewhere to hide. “They watched me run in here. They’ll find me. I need to hide somewhere.”

“Okay.”

“ _Okay_?” Baekhyun repeats. His lips are gapped in such a way that you infer he didn’t expect that reaction. “Okay. _Okay_. Do you have a closet or anything?”

You nod, leading Baekhyun in the direction he was heading in before. He’s so resistless that it makes your head spin. You’ll use this to your advantage and whilst your medication is making the disease easier to handle, subjecting Baekhyun to your darkest wishes is a task you can complete with ease.

There’s a closet you’ve had in your room for a while, one with a false panel on the back that leads to a room you can escape to. It was one you had set up yourself following Chanyeol’s disappearance. You weren’t sure who would follow you so decided it would be for the best. Now it’s paying off.

“Inside there,” you say to Baekhyun, sending him inside the room without a second thought. He climbs inside and turns to you, waiting for you to shut the wardrobe cover. But instead you stay still and just watch him. “Why do you believe me now, Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun bites his tongue. “Things have changed. I was blinded by how I felt about my position in Unnamed and ignored all of my feelings.”

“What do feelings have to do with this, Baekhyun?”

“I realised why I kissed you before,” he answers. He swallows thickly and leans his head back. “You’re not like other people that I meet. You fought back against me. You offered a new perspective. I found myself wanting to spend more and more time with you but originally I thought it was because I needed something different but I realised it’s because I needed _you_.”

 _I don’t believe you_. He’s the only person capable of pulling a stunt where he convinces you he loves you. Why are these pills so effective now that those shitty roses aren’t coming from your lungs again? Why is it so hard now to hate him?

“Needed me?”

Baekhyun nods. He gulps harshly and leans forward, just so your nose is near to his own. The tip of his just brushes your skin and it _burns._ “I blamed you because I needed to blame _someone_.”

“But why would you blame me?” you ask him.

“Because I was scared.”

“Scared?” You repeat his words with a bitter aftertaste. “Of what? What can possibly be a threat to you?”

There’s a silence. You’re just staring at each other again and a rush of all the emotions you’ve felt whilst you’ve been around him all come at once. You know why you’re so infatuated by him still. You _are_ still infatuated by him and nothing anyone would ever say could change your mind on that matter. Nothing could change the fact you want him dead, either.

Baekhyun sighs, letting his head drop towards the floor. He has no courage left. “If I told myself that you were the one who did it, I knew that I would have a chance of surviving against Bangtan.”

“You still have a chance, Baekhyun. They’re not nearly as powerful as Unnamed are and—”

“—and we’ve lost one of our most important members. Unnamed are nothing right now. Kyungsoo won’t leave the house and Sehun is a sobbing mess because of this! We’re all getting what we deserve and it’s finally setting in what being one of the most _hated_ men in this continent feels like. I’m _so_ scared. I know my end is coming. What about people that don’t? The people I’ve killed that didn’t know I wanted them on my list. Like… _Zhang Yixing’s brother_.”

He only had to say that for you to be remembered of who he truly is. You repeat it in your head. _Monster; Monster; Monster._ “You can’t change the past. If you’re truly sorry for what you did to them then they’ll know you are.”

“And if I’m not?”

You swallow hard. “Then you pray that they forgive you.”

Baekhyun nods. He can’t say anything else on the topic. He can’t act like he’s sorry if he’s not sorry and he can’t pretend any longer. He _is_ scared. You’re glad of the very fact. When you could go to Yixing tonight and tell him exactly what happened here, it would be your pleasure to say that Byun Baekhyun was trembling with fear before you. Even if it wasn’t because of you.

“Would you forgive me?” Baekhyun asks.

“For what?”

“For playing you. Using you. Lying to you. Not telling you how I really felt.”

You physically cannot forgive him. It’s not in your blood. Revenge, that’s what you use to forgive people. You’d maybe realise he was sorry when his body was rotting in hell but today—with his shaking fingers that are touching your cheeks, body unable to keep still from pure fear—was not that day.

So you do what he did to you before. You place your hand over his, holding his cold skin to your cheek and making sure he felt how warm you were. Not like him. Not like someone who’s dancing with death.

And you kiss him.

It’s slower than what he had done before. He doesn’t move and instead shuts his eyes to fully embrace how you feel on him. Touching him. You try to tell yourself this is what he’s been missing but you can’t change your mind about your plans now. _Monster._ He nips at your bottom lip ever so slightly to _try_ to hold onto what’s left of the world around him.

It’s crashing down too quickly. He can’t escape his fate.

As you pull away, you can see in his eyes that he knows you’re different. That your feelings have changed from that day you kissed him before and tried to get him to believe you. His lack of trust in your words—your _judgement_ —was going to become the death of him. Indirectly. Deep down he must know you’re not _just_ Chanyeol’s sister.  
  


“Stay here,” you tell him. That’s all you can bring yourself to stay.

Baekhyun does exactly what you say. He nods, sitting in the corner with his arms around his chest and white polo stained red from blood. He looks scared. Could you really do this to him?

Of course you _fucking_ could.

He’s only a Monster.

You run back into your main room and find the first glass object you can. It’s a vase, one you’d placed some flowers in that Chanyeol had given you the last time you saw him. They’d be in use to you now. You silently thank Chanyeol in your head for being there for you still.

The hardest thing to accept is how much he did actually care.

You can only hope he’s not too mad at you for being one of his rivals and hoping he was dead for so long. If you could take it back, you would now. Chanyeol didn’t deserve it. _Only_ Baekhyun did.

The vase smashes into sections, one long shard being sharp enough for you to make a slice across the centre of your arm. Blood drops across your arm and you press it to your shirt, your neck and your head, matching a cut on your head as you try not to wince. To anyone else who was just looking, you were a damsel in distress who had been intruded at home by some man covered in blood and running from someone.

Anyone outside would believe that.

“ _Help_!” You cry, mocking of Baekhyun’s tone from earlier. You topple down the hall that’s covered with dirt hoping that Jimin or Namjoon is around. “Someone, help me!”

You don’t even know how that son of a bitch got your address. Stalking? He’d do anything he could to get information to use against you. Or maybe he thought he could bring you down with him. Turns out he’s not smart enough.

It _is_ Kim Namjoon who’s looking to send Baekhyun to hell. The blond man steps from the stair well with his face like thunder and stare so hard it would give anyone a little taste of hell. _That_ must be why Baekhyun run away like a little bitch.

“Ahjussi! Ahjussi!”

Namjoon meets your broken call with a soft, sympathetic gaze. From your own research he’s nice to people. He acts like a servant for Jimin and Seokjin but he’s a good guy. He notices your cuts and blood and immediately comes to your call. “Are you okay, miss?”

“T-There’s a man! In my apartment!” You tell him. A sinful tone rocks behind your voice but Namjoon must have ignored it. He looks to where you’re pointing and frowns. “Covered in blood! He had a white polo and a black blazer and hair that was covered in blood! I think he’s mad!”

Namjoon’s just as easy to fool as the others. “In your apartment?”

“He’s hiding in a closet in my room, please help me! He threatened to kill me and told me that I would never see my family again. I’m so scared ahjussi, he wanted to hurt me!”

 _No._ He already did hurt you.

All you can hope for now is that these flowers stop growing. Surgery isn’t really your thing. You just find it strange how easily Baekhyun found your address, but it must have been a coincidence.

First you were saved by Yixing knowing why you were sick. Now you’re saved by Baekhyun knowing your address.

Yixing doesn’t believe in coincidences.


End file.
